The 2023 Chicago Bears schedule was revealed Thursday and can reconvene as a full crew for practices at organized crew actions May 23. This is a crucial and thrilling part for a crew with an infusion of recent expertise. The Bears should use the following month as a runway towards coaching camp. As the offseason program continues, right here’s the within slant on three notable storylines
1. Calendar chatter
Save the dates. The NFL schedule is on the desk with the Bears set to leap onto the prime-time stage 4 occasions, together with twice on Amazon Prime’s Thursday night time bundle.
The Bears will open towards the rival Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. And they’ll shut with the Packers, too, within the Week 18 finale at Lambeau Field.
At first look, with solely 5 video games towards groups that certified for the playoffs final season, the Bears ought to see a window of alternative to speed up their return to relevance.
And for beginning quarterback Justin Fields, this fall now turns into “The No Excuses Tour.” Seventeen dates in 10 cities over 119 days. From Los Angeles to Maryland.
Get the buses loaded and the T-shirts printed.
This is Fields’ massive second on an enormous stage to once more electrify Bears followers and, extra importantly, persuade his coaches and front-office choice makers that he’s the standout starter they wish to construct round.
The Bears hope that’s the case and are optimistic it could actually occur. That’s why common supervisor Ryan Poles went about his offseason enterprise the way in which he did, first buying and selling the No. 1 choose and passing on the possibility to handpick a quarterback from the 2023 draft class. Poles then used free company and the draft to get Fields further assistance on offense.
What’s that, you stated? The Bears want higher offensive line play? Well, Poles signed guard Nate Davis to a three-year, $30 million contract within the first wave of free company in March, then adopted six weeks later by making Tennessee deal with Darnell Wright the headliner of his draft class.
Fields wants extra weaponry round him? How a couple of confirmed, top-tier receiver in DJ Moore, who had greater than 5,000 receiving yards in 5 seasons with the Carolina Panthers and arrived at Halas Hall as a part of the deal the Bears made for that No. 1 choose.
Moore will be a part of a receiving corps that features Darnell Mooney, Chase Claypool, Velus Jones and fifth-round choose Tyler Scott.
The Bears additionally added three operating backs — D’Onta Foreman, Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer — and a quarterback-friendly tight finish in Robert Tonyan.
It will likely be as much as Fields to benefit from what he has been given, to take his sport to new ranges whereas elevating the play of everybody round him. He has greater than sufficient assist to pretty take this subsequent massive check with a lot at stake.
In lower than a yr, the Bears should decide about whether or not to train the fifth-year possibility on Fields’ rookie contract, which figures to be a totally assured funding within the ballpark of $25 million for the 2025 season. In a nutshell, the Bears quarterback may have these subsequent 17 video games to show simply how a lot he’s value believing in.
Which brings us again to that schedule for “The No Excuses Tour.”
For those that had been eagerly anticipating that cease in Frankfurt, Germany, towards the Chiefs, stand down. Instead a date at Arrowhead Stadium towards the reigning Super Bowl champions is locked in for Week 3.
The Bears will even make journeys to Tampa, Fla., (Sept. 17), Washington (Oct. 5), Los Angeles (Oct. 29), New Orleans (Nov. 5) and Cleveland (TBA in Week 15) along with their annual visits throughout the NFC North.
This season’s Soldier Field dates embrace a Week 10 go to from the Panthers and their shiny new toy, quarterback Bryce Young, whom they chose with the No. 1 choose two weeks in the past.
Rookie operating again Bijan Robinson will even cease by means of city with the Atlanta Falcons on New Year’s Eve.
The Denver Broncos (Week 4), Las Vegas Raiders (Week 7) and Arizona Cardinals (Week 16) will head this fashion too.
For a Bears protection that struggled to cease anybody throughout a 10-game skid to finish final season, the menu of opposing quarterbacks is imposing in spots, beginning with Patrick Mahomes and persevering with on by means of Russell Wilson, Justin Herbert and Deshaun Watson. Don’t sleep on division foes Kirk Cousins or Jared Goff both.
The Bears will play 10 video games towards groups with a beginning quarterback who has been to the Pro Bowl. But for the primary time since 2008 when he grew to become the Packers starter, supervillain Aaron Rodgers shouldn’t be on the schedule.
We repeat, Bears followers, AARON RODGERS IS NOT ON THE SCHEDULE!
In all, the Bears will play solely 5 video games towards groups who certified for the playoffs final season and 6 towards opponents who completed with a profitable document.
They will play towards three groups with new head coaches.
All 17 contests, in fact, will likely be performed towards opponents who completed with extra victories final season. Everyone completed with extra victories than the Bears.
And don’t overlook the preseason, which this yr is anticipated to incorporate a five-day enterprise journey for crossover practices with the Indianapolis Colts.
With Fields anticipated to see little or no motion in preseason video games, these three days of labor in the midst of August will present useful competitors and studying experiences, serving as a measuring stick for the place the Bears offense and their promising quarterback are at.
“The No Excuses Tour” is gearing up. The full itinerary crystallized Thursday.
2. ‘A pillar of this organization’
The shiny brochure for Roschon Johnson has been put collectively at Halas Hall and is prepared for distribution.
In the previous three weeks, the operating again has gone from a Day 3 sleeper prospect within the draft to a rookie whom the Chicago Bears imagine can grow to be “a pillar of this organization.” Those are the daring, capital letters on the entrance of the flyer, lifted from the report of the crew’s southwest space scout John Syty, who kicked off the Johnson lovefest on the Saturday of draft weekend.
“There’s a level of ‘it’ factor to this kid the second he walks into the room,” Syty stated simply minutes after the Bears chosen Johnson with the No. 115 choose within the fourth spherical. “I have a feeling this guy is going to be with us for a really long time.”
Through his scouting, Syty recognized Johnson as an “arrow up” again with an intense work ethic and high-level intelligence. Syty watched the way in which Johnson practiced at Texas. He noticed him play towards Alabama and Oklahoma. He interacted with him on the Senior Bowl in February and at his professional day the next month.
Yes, Texas had a a lot larger star on the similar place in Bijan Robinson, who was drafted at No. 8 by the Atlanta Falcons. Robinson is taken into account by many NFL expertise evaluators to be a generational expertise, maybe on his approach to superstardom. Yet each time Syty bought to campus in Austin, the reward for Johnson was all the time flowing.
“They’ve got Bijan. You know what I mean?” Syty stated. “His name is plastered everywhere. You read it in the headlines all summer long. Then you walk into that building and they’re talking about this kid (Johnson). Before I even go out to practice and see the kid — from the liaison to the strength coach to the trainer, across the board — everyone is singing the same message. ‘This is the hardest working kid in the building.’ ”
With each statement and every dialog, Syty grew to become extra satisfied that Johnson was precisely the type of participant common supervisor Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus had ordered him to go discover.
“He fits everything Ryan and Matt are trying to accomplish,” Syty stated. He’s a HITS-principle man. He simply emulates every part we would like a Chicago Bear to be.”
It’s simple for a younger scout to get hooked up to a prospect he loves and grow to be overzealous tooting the horn because the hype practice leaves the station. But Syty was not alone in his reward of Johnson or along with his imaginative and prescient for what the 22-year-old operating again can grow to be with the Bears.
Poles emphasised his luck that Johnson was nonetheless obtainable when the crew went on the clock for the primary time on the third day of the draft. Poles is impressed with Johnson’s mixture of expertise, versatility, drive and management. “He’s an unbelievable human being as well,” Poles stated, “who is going to enhance our culture.”
Added Matt Eberflus: “He’s a guy who perseveres. You’re not going to be able to shake him. He’s going to take competition and thrive in that competition rather than back away from it.”
And right here was operating backs coach David Walker: “He’s a smart, conscientious kid. He works hard and he’s going to try to be the best version of himself every day. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
Even Johnson’s operating backs coach at Texas, Tashard Choice, has admired the way in which Johnson climbed the staircase from team-first man to nice teammate to crew chief.
“He works harder than anybody on the football team, but he also is a voice in the locker room that people respect,” Choice stated. “He’s never overbearing. He never speaks out of place. For him, with his accountability, his leadership, he does all the little things to make sure the football team wins.”
OK. So now what?
Johnson has his alternative, his window opening in a crowded operating backs room in Lake Forest. He will take the apply subject subsequent week at organized crew actions with veteran backs Khalil Herbert, D’Onta Foreman, Travis Homer and Trestan Ebner. Johnson will start his NFL climb, in search of no matter position(s) he’s finest fitted to.
Johnson finally may emerge as a major contributor in a backfield rotation. Or he might need to retain his persistence and first carve out a distinct segment as a four-phase particular groups ace for coordinator Richard Hightower, who has already been pumping his fist concerning the chess piece he now has.
In the minutes after the Bears drafted Johnson, Hightower stated, his smartphone started blowing up with texts popping in from different particular groups coaches across the league, all expressing the same sentiment.
Dang!
“And you say, ‘You know what? We made a great selection,’ ” Hightower stated.
Hightower had his first likelihood to work with Johnson final weekend at rookie minicamp and took observe of so many little issues the child can do. On Saturday morning, when Hightower hit gamers with a pop quiz on all the main points and tasks they had been presupposed to study for particular groups, Johnson didn’t miss a factor.
Hightower additionally had seen on Johnson’s particular groups video from Texas that he’s “as violent as they come” as a tackler along with being such a talented ball service.
Then there was a small second after a gathering final Friday that actually resonated with Hightower. Several gamers had left the room with out tidying up, abandoning a group of empty and half-drank water bottles. Johnson, after asking one final query, turned again to the desks, grabbed all of the bottles and dropped them within the recycling bin.
“That just shows you he wants things the way he wants them,” Hightower stated.
The Bears, in fact, extra desperately want playmakers than they do custodial assist. But there’s something about Johnson’s wiring that has so many of us contained in the constructing wanting to see his skilled ascent. And to assist it.
For 4 seasons at Texas, Johnson dealt with himself with function and style, working within the shadow of Robinson, who chewed up 2,707 yards on the bottom whereas scoring 29 touchdowns in 2021 and 2022 mixed. Johnson had a lesser position in Steve Sarkisian’s offense, dashing for 554 yards and 5 TDs throughout his last season.
Still, hardly ever was there a day when he wasn’t locked in, pushing himself and everybody round him.
“It just comes from my passion for the game, honestly,” Johnson stated. “It’s being able to enjoy the game, knowing what to expect from it and knowing what it takes to win.”
Even Robinson, whom the Atlanta Falcons drafted with the No. 8 choose, lights up when he talks about Johnson, praising his toughness and coronary heart.
“Roschon is the best teammate I’ve ever had,” Robinson stated on the mix. “He brings out so much in a player and the team with how he goes about being a leader.”
At the following stage, Johnson understands he should earn his alternatives to guide.
“I can’t just come in here and try to command things and be a leader already,” he stated. “It’s something I am going to have to grow into. Ultimately my peers will let me lead.”
To be truthful, Johnson is simply half-looking ahead to the following couple of months of non-padded, limited-contact practices. The complete setup stifles what he’s all about as a runner.
“Can’t use my body as a weapon,” he stated.
Walker, although, isn’t involved that the Bears received’t get a real image of who Johnson is as a runner till preseason video games begin in August. “I don’t need to see him in pads to know what it’s going to look like when the pads come on,” Walker stated. “Because I saw it all over Texas’ film.”
That’s not all of the Bears noticed in Johnson, both, as has been detailed in that attention-grabbing brochure.
Syty referred to as him a “special, special human being” who’s “wired differently.”
“You guys are going to see it,” he stated. “The more time you spend around him, the more you realize you are probably the one who has things you need to work on, not him. He’s that kind of guy.”
3. ‘The next great linebacker’
As the Bears proceed piecing collectively their defensive position, working to ascertain their rotation on the inside whereas nonetheless, maybe, searching for exterior assist at defensive finish, the group has made an enormous wager on its linebacking corps, making Tremaine Edmunds and T.J. Edwards precedence targets in free company in March, then drafting Oregon’s Noah Sewell in Round 5 two weeks in the past.
Edmunds is the lead canine, a two-time Pro Bowl choice who will play center linebacker in Eberflus’ protection and whose mixture of measurement, pace and size has the Bears teaching workers excited.
Defensive coordinator Alan Williams appears to be like at Edmunds’ 6-foot-5, 250-pound body, his lengthy arms and pace and may’t wait to start out molding him into the Bears system.
“He looks like a million bucks,” Williams stated.
To that finish, the Bears assured Edmunds $50 million bucks on a four-year, $72-million deal as a result of they imagine he can grow to be an every-week affect playmaker in the midst of the protection, not solely piling up tackles however working to create game-changing splash performs — as a blitzer, as a cross defender, as a hitter who can jar the soccer free.
One of the knocks on Edmunds popping out of Buffalo is that these massive moments didn’t come usually sufficient. In 5 seasons with the Bills, he had solely 6½ sacks, 5 interceptions, two pressured fumbles and no fumble recoveries.
The Bears have to convey extra out of Edmunds to get the return on funding they envision, notably after buying and selling away Roquan Smith final fall, partially, as a result of Eberflus was not absolutely glad with Smith’s manufacturing at weak-side linebacker.
“We always base things on numbers and production,” Eberflus stated two days after the Smith commerce, “and to us, we covet ball production.”
So why does Eberflus imagine Edmunds can have a serious breakthrough in that division? It begins with Bears coaches’ perception that their emphasis on taking the ball away will create a nastier and extra opportunistic mindset.
“When you put it on a player’s mind and really start to train a player to take the ball away and then he has that physical attributes that (Edmunds) has — the length and the size and the range — that’s going to come for him,” Eberflus stated. “That’s what makes those guys special. The ability to take the ball away is what takes you from a B player to an A-plus player.”
The problem has been issued with the Bears making a daring wager on Edmunds’ continued climb and the 25-year-old linebacker vowing to reciprocate by being receptive to teaching and able to grow to be a faithful disciple of Eberflus’ effort-based tradition.
“I’m trying to be great,” Edmunds stated. “And I want to be coached by people who coach great players. And I obviously want to be in a system and a program that has had legends. The Chicago Bears are known for their linebackers, and I want to be able to write my story and be that next great linebacker here.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com